Canadian TV provides example of anti-Israel bias in reporting

Sunday, June 20, 2010 |
Israel Today Staff

Canada's CBC came under fire from Israel media monitors after a June 1 report on the television network stated that the infant mortality rate in the Gaza Strip is among the highest in the world thanks to the Israeli blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory.

CBC correspondent Peter Mansbridge made the claim as part of a larger report regarding the Gaza blockade and Israel's interception of a so-called "aid" flotilla from Turkey.

However, a quick check of online sources such as the CIA World Fact Book and the World Health Organization reveals that Gaza's infant mortality rate of 17.71 per 1,000 births is actually ranked 109 out of 224 countries surveyed, and that it is significantly lower than every other Middle East country except Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

For example, the infant mortality rate in Iraq is 43.16 per 1,000 births, in Iran it is 34.7 per 1,000 births, and in Turkey 24.8 per 1,000 births.

CBC later issued an apology and said Mansbridge has been "in error," but rejected the notion that the report was tainted by anti-Israel bias. Still, media monitor HonestReporting wondered how Mansbridge managed to make such an error when the accurate information is readily available.

Foreign media correspondents have notoriously accepted anything and everything that Gaza officials tell them as gospel, and often publish such claims without first verifying them.

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